The present invention relates to a shock absorbing mobile adapter which can be used as a landing gear for cargo delivered by parachute, a prosthetic human foot, a teaching device to students learning about the motions and stresses of the foot, and as a landing device for aerospace vehicles.
The function of normal walking results in contraction, expansion and torsion of the foot. Any artificial foot should perform likewise. Careful analysis of the problems encountered with the existing prior art devices led to the conclusion that the ideal prosthetic foot should produce a dynamic object which can proceed through all the gross mechanical motions observed in the human foot during the gait cycle. This requires three plane motion. Unfortunately, as will be seen below, none of the prior art devices possesses these desired attributes.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,319,471 shows an artificial foot with a number of hinged members but without any means for lateral expansion and contraction or torsion.
U.S. Pat Nos. 2,470,480 and 2,483,506 illustrate artificial limbs which also have only single plane movement.
The present invention eliminates all of the problems inherent in the above described devices. The present invention provides three dimensional motion to facilitate easy accommodation to average ground terrain and to accept the torque of the leg on the foot in gait.